Luton have given themselves a chance after taking points off promotion-chasers, says Nathan Jones, who admits there’s no extra pressure for the remaining six matches.
Town remain unbeaten after three games of the restart, taking five points from promotion-chasing Preston, Swansea and Leeds, which the manager described as one of the toughest run of fixtures to kick-off the Championship finale.
“Realistically, if we didn’t pick up points in those games we were pretty much dead and buried, so we’ve give ourselves a chance,” said Jones.
Today, the Hatters host Reading as the first of six remaining games, including three against drop zone rivals Hull, Huddersfield and Barnsley.
But victories for the former two in midweek have moved Luton back to four points from safety, despite a point at Leeds cutting the deficit to two, if only for 24 hours.
“They were big, big games, but these now, we have to pick up points,” said Jones, adding: “I wouldn’t necessarily say the pressure is any different, because we had to pick up points against wonderful opposition.
“Now, we’ve got a really tough opposition and you just don’t know what people’s motivations are, and so on, but all we can concentrate on is us.
“We have a game plan, game-to-game. We know what we need to do, and we are motivated to do that.
“Game-to-game, we evaluate and we’ve just got to make sure we keep cutting that gap to the safety line and, if we keep doing that, then we give ourselves a chance.”
For his second spell at Luton, Jones returned to aide that has the worst defensive record in the division, but conceding just two goals, alongside strong defensive display have set the platform to the points Town have taken since the restart.
The Hatters chief said: “You need a platform because you won’t win Championship games if you concede. No side at this level can concede goals and win games.
“If you look at all the big teams, and I spoke to someone yesterday about Brentford who are one of the most wonderful footballing sides in the division, but their defensive record is superb.
“It gives you opportunities if you can be defensively sound and you don’t need two or three to win a game.
“I’ve built a reputation being a very attacking manager or coach, attack minded but if you want to win games at Championship level, you have to be defensively sound.
“Ironically, from my previous time here at League Two and League One level, we’ve always been in the top three defensive if not the best, some years we had the best defensive record.
“So, as much as we built a reputation for being an attacking side, we always made sure that we were defensively sound and that’s what you have to do, because if you concede goals, you’re not going to pick up the points you need.”
